2) Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Account of Life at Guantanamo Democracy Now! We speak with former army sergeant, Erik Saar who served as an Arabic translator at Guantanamo Bay for six months. Among the abuses he says he witnessed was sexual abuse, mock interrogations, the use of dogs and a female interrogator smearing what looked like menstrual blood on a Muslim prisoner. He also says the military ordered them not to speak to the Red Cross. http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl

8) House and Senate Reach Accord on $82 Billion for Costs of Wars By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Published: May 4, 2005 "The conference also provided $200 million in aid to the Palestinian territories, including $50 million for Israel to improve transportation to and from the territories. The conference bill also requires that the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, audit United States aid for the Palestinian territories, and it allocates $5 million for an independent audit of the Palestinian Authority. The House version of the bill had sought to block any direct American aid to the Palestinians."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/international/middleeast/04spend.html

9) The Pirates of Illiopolis, Why your Kitchen Floor may pose a Threat to National Security By Sandra Steingraberhttp://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-3om/Steingraber.html

10) Kent State, May 4, 1970: America Kills Its Children The Ethical Spectacle, May 1995, http://www.spectacle.orghttp://www.spectacle.org/595/kent.html

11) Killings at Jackson State University May 14 Memorial to the incident"When the order to ceasefire was given Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18 month-old son lay dead. Across the street, behind the line of police and highway patrolmen, James Earl Green, 17, was sprawled dead. Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, was walking home from work at a local grocery store when he stopped to watch the action. Twelve other Jackson State students were struck by gunfire. The five-story dormitory was riddled by gunfire. FBI investigators estimated that more than 460 rounds struck the building, shattering every window facing the street on each floor. Investigators counted at least 160 bullet holes in the outer walls of the stairwell alone bullet holes that can still be seen today."http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1660/Killings_at_Jackson_State_University

12) From Cuba HUMANITY IS ANXIOUS FOR JUSTICE Message to the United States of America intellectuals and artists, read by the author-singer Silvio Rodriguez in Plaza de la Revolución on May 1st, 2005

13) F.B.I. Will Exhume the Body of Emmett Till for an Autopsy By GRETCHEN RUETHLING Published: May 5, 2005http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/national/05exhume.html?

14) Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq By BOB HERBERT May 5, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp

15) Support for Iraq War at Lowest Level 35-percentage-point drop from high in '03 by Bill Nichols and Mona Mahmoud Published on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 by USA Today"The findings, made public on the same day that Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years was sworn in, show that 41% say the war was worth it; 57% say it wasn't." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0504-12.htm

17) BAUAW has teamed up with Local Impact to launch a grassroots fax campaign to pressure SFPD to stop interfering with anti-war meetings. Send a free fax to SPFD Chief Fong demanding that she keep her officers out of political meetings.http://www.local-impact.orghttp://www.local-impact.org/takeaction18.html

18) IRAQ: Making a killing: the big business of war Doug Lorimer “While nearly 100,000 Iraqis and 1600 US troops have died as a result of the Iraq war and tens of thousands have been severely wounded, the war has proven to be extremely lucrative for the Houston-based oil services company Halliburton and the San Francisco-based construction company Bechtel. These are the two largest private contractors to the US occupation forces in Iraq.”http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/625/625p20.htm

19) Army misses April recruiting goal by 42 percent By Will Dunham Tue May 3, 2005 05:41 PM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8378239

21) In Kansas, Darwinism Goes on Trial Once More By JODI WILGOREN May 6, 2005 "In the first of three daylong hearings being referred to here as a direct descendant of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, a parade of Ph.D.'s testified Thursday about the flaws they saw in mainstream science's explanation of the origins of life. It was one part biology lesson, one part political theater, and the biggest stage yet for the emerging movement known as intelligent design, which posits that life's complexity cannot be explained without a supernatural creator."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/education/06evolution.html

22) G.I. DENIED CONSCIENTIOUS-OBJECTOR STATUS By Russ Bynum Associated Press April 29, 2005"SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Army said Friday it has denied conscientious objector status for a soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq for a second tour, saying he became morally opposed to war during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, filed his objector application Dec. 28, just 10 days before he skipped his unit's deployment flight. The Army mechanic faces a court-martial May 12 on charges of desertion and missing movement."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042900477.html

23) One year since the torture revelations at Abu Ghraib Mistrial in reservist's court martial By Bill Van Auken "One year after photographs of American soldiers torturing and humiliating naked and hooded Iraqi prisoners triggered a wave of international revulsion, the US Army was forced Wednesday to declare a mistrial in the prosecution of one of a handful of junior-ranking enlisted personnel charged in the matter. Private First Class Lynndie England, an Army reservist, had pled guilty two days earlier to charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison and conspiracy. "I had a choice, but I chose to do what my friends wanted me to," said England."6 May 2005http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/abu-m06.shtml

Political prisoner Yvon Neptune, Haiti's last constitutional Prime Minister, lies on the verge of death from a hunger strike, initiated because . . . jailed for 10 months without formal charges

[A] USAID funded anti-Aristide group, has accused Neptune of participation in a massacre . . . in February 2004 . . . never offered any proof . . . an accusation recently dismissed by official of U.N. [which had the effrontery to investigate the charges]

Neptune has vowed to continue his hunger strike until either charged or released. [as] illegal "interim" regime of Gerard Latortue could but refuses [to do]

[R]ecent news reports indicate Neptune [may be removed from Haiti against his will].

On May 1, Marguerite Laurent of the Lawyers' Leadership Network, [after speaking] with [the] family wrote, "Mr. Neptune's family stresses that Yvon Neptune would never go into exile . . . he is an innocent man, wrongfully accused [who] will not leave prison unless a judge [orders] his liberation . . . and acknowledged his innocence of all crimes." Please tell UN it must direct the coup government to finally release Neptune.

On April 19, . . . lawyers from the Bureau des Avocats Internationaux, the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, and the Hastings Human Rights Project for Haiti filed a complaint before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on Neptune's behalf see http://www.ijdh.org/articles/article_recent_news_april-4-19-05.htm

For months, Mr. Neptune has insisted that he will not leave until . . . justice [is] done. Haiti's interim government attempted to deflect . . . pressure by offering to fly him to the Dominican Republic over the weekend for treatment. Neptune refused . . . an easy escape for either himself or the interim government.

According to Ronald Saint-Jean, the Secretary-General of the Group for the Defense of the Rights of Political Prisoners (GDP), government sources indicate that the authorities plan to wait until Neptune loses consciousness, then transport him out of the country. [and with others protest] "this cynical and criminal measure." They note the . . . government can quickly arrange transport to a hospital in the Dominican Republic, but . . . not [to a court in over 10 months and that Neptune's forced exile would be yet another violation of his . . . rights

2) Inside the Wire: A Military Intelligence Soldier's Account of Life at Guantanamo Democracy Now! We speak with former army sergeant, Erik Saar who served as an Arabic translator at Guantanamo Bay for six months. Among the abuses he says he witnessed was sexual abuse, mock interrogations, the use of dogs and a female interrogator smearing what looked like menstrual blood on a Muslim prisoner. He also says the military ordered them not to speak to the Red Cross. http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl

We the undersigned, as individuals and organizations, write this letter to bring to your attention the case of a (False Arrest) of one Mr. Thaer Afaneh, a Muslim Arab, by the San Francisco police department. The enclosed photo-copies pertain to Mr. Afaneh's arrest, who was held for 5 days in County Jail , and was (interrogated) before reaching county jail, insulted, humiliated, threatened with deportation, before being brought before a judge. Mr. Thaer Afaneh is an educated man with a multiple graduate degrees including a (Maters in International Finance) from the U.K. and U.S.A. too, a man who is working on projects which will bring a large amount of jobs and funds to California too. He is afraid to move forward because of this incident. What is of relevance here is that Mr. Afaneh was initially represented by an attorney from the Public Defenders Office, -Charmaine Yu who counseled Mr. Afaneh to plead guilty to "a lesser charge", thus forcing Mr. Afaneh to hire a private attorney at a great expensive. He eventually had his case dismissed by the court – six weeks after his arrest. Mr. Afaneh now seeks to:

_ Have his record of false arrest "expunged" and cleared from the police records and computers.

_ To be "Factually declared innocent".

_ Request that the Public Defenders Office hold an orientation session for its staff attorneys, together with interested community and advocacy groups about the still prevailing (9/11 Hysteria) of nabbing " dark complexion" , "Middle Eastern" , " Muslims" , " Arabs" , " South Asians" on the slightest suspicions.

8) House and Senate Reach Accord on $82 Billion for Costs of Wars By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Published: May 4, 2005 "The conference also provided $200 million in aid to the Palestinian territories, including $50 million for Israel to improve transportation to and from the territories. The conference bill also requires that the Government Accountability Office, the nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress, audit United States aid for the Palestinian territories, and it allocates $5 million for an independent audit of the Palestinian Authority. The House version of the bill had sought to block any direct American aid to the Palestinians."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/04/international/middleeast/04spend.html

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9) The Pirates of Illiopolis, Why your Kitchen Floor may pose a Threat to National Security By Sandra Steingraberhttp://www.oriononline.org/pages/om/05-3om/Steingraber.html

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10) Kent State, May 4, 1970: America Kills Its Children The Ethical Spectacle, May 1995, http://www.spectacle.orghttp://www.spectacle.org/595/kent.html

Twenty-five years ago this month, students came out on the Kent Statecampus and scores of others to protest the bombing of Cambodia-- adecision of President Nixon's that appeared to expand the Vietnam War.Some rocks were thrown, some windows were broken, and an attempt wasmade to burn the ROTC building. Governor James Rhodes sent in theNational Guard.

The units that responded were ill-trained and came right from riot dutyelsewhere; they hadn't had much sleep. The first day, there was somebrutality; the Guard bayonetted two men, one a disabled veteran, who hadcursed or yelled at them from cars. The following day, May 4th, theGuard, commanded with an amazing lack of military judgment, marched downa hill, to a field in the middle of angry demonstrators, then back upagain. Seconds before they would have passed around the corner of alarge building, and out of sight of the crowd, many of the Guardsmenwheeled and fired directly into the students, hitting thirteen, killingfour of them, pulling the trigger over and over, for thirteen seconds.(Count out loud--one Mississippi, two Mississippi, to see how long thisis.) Guardsmen--none of whom were later punished, civilly,administratively, or criminally--admitted firing at specific unarmedtargets; one man shot a demonstrator who was giving him the finger. Theclosest student shot was fully sixty feet away; all but one were morethan 100 feet away; all but two were more than 200 feet away. One of thedead was 255 feet away; the rest were 300 to 400 feet away. The mostdistant student shot was more than 700 feet from the Guardsmen.

Some rocks had been thrown, and some tear gas canisters fired by theGuard had been hurled back, but (though some of the Guardsmen certainlymust know the truth) no-one has ever been able to establish why theGuard fired when they were seconds away from safety around the corner ofthe building. None had been injured worse than a minor bruise, nodemonstrators were armed, there was simply nothing threatening them thatjustified an armed and murderous response. In addition to thedemonstrators, none of whom was closer than sixty feet, the campus wasfull of onlookers and students on their way to class; two of the fourdead fell in this category. Most Guardsmen later testified that theyturned and fired because everyone else was. There was an attempt toblame a mysterious sniper, of whom no trace was ever found; there was noevidence, on the ground, on still photographs or a film, of a shot firedby anyone but the Guardsmen. One officer is seen in many of thephotographs, out in front, pointing a pistol; one possibility is that hefired first, causing the others, ahead of him, to turn and fire. Or (assome witnesses testified) he or another officer may have given an orderto fire. It is indisputable that the Guardsmen were not in any immediatephysical danger when they fired; the crowd was not pursuing them; theywere seconds away from being out of sight of the demonstration.

There was also an undercover FBI informant, Terry Norman, carrying a gunon the field that day. Though he later turned his gun into the police,who announced it had not been fired, later ballistic tests by the FBIshowed that it had been fired since it was last cleaned-- but by then itwas too late to determine whether it had been fired before or on May 4th.

It would be too charitable to say that the investigation was botched;there was no investigation. Even the New York City police, who arethemselves prone to brutality and corruption, do a better job. Everytime an officer discharges his weapon, it is taken from him, and thereis an investigation. Here--to the fatal detriment of the federalcriminal trial which followed--it was never conclusively establishedwhich Guardsmen had fired, or which of them had shot the wounded and thedead. Since all were wearing gas masks, it is impossible to identifythem in pictures (many had also removed or covered their name tags, aclassic ploy of law enforcement officers about to commit brutality inthe '60's and '70's), and though many confessed to having fired theirweapons, none admitted to being in the first row and therefore, amongthe first to fire. The ballistic evidence could have helped here, butnone was taken.

One rumor has it that the Guardsmen were told the same night that theywould never be prosecuted by the state of Ohio. And they never were. TheNixon administration stalled for years, announcing "investigations" thatled nowhere; White House tapes subsequently released show that Nixonthought demonstrators were bums, asked the Secret Service to go beatthem up, and apparently felt that the Kent State victims had it coming.As did most of the country; William Gordon calls the killings "the mostpopular murders ever committed in the United States."

The history of the next few years is very sad. A federal prosecution wasfinally brought, but the presiding judge is said to have signalled hispreference for the defendants, guiding their attorney's conduct of thecase to help them avoid legal errors. He dismissed all charges at theclose of the prosecution's case, avoiding the need for a defense andtaking the case away from the jury. Among his reasons: a failure toprove specific intent to deprive the victims of their civil rights; dueto the lack of any investigation, it was almost impossible at this latedate to show which Guardsmen shot which victim.

In the New York City police force, which is far from perfect, officerswho have killed or injured someone under questionable circumstances areoften dismissed from the force even though there is not enough evidencefor a criminal conviction; the standard of proof is not the same for anadministrative action as for a criminal case. You don't want anunstable, sadistic person on the force, even though there may not beenough evidence for a criminal conviction. But the Guardsmen--even theone who confessed to shooting an unarmed demonstrator giving him thefinger--were not deemed unfit to serve the State, even though they hadfired indiscriminately into a crowd containing many passsersby andstudents on their way to classes.

A civil suit brought by the wounded students and the parents of the deadones deteriorated among infighting by the plaintiffs' lawyers. Unable toagree on a single theory of the case, they contradicted each other. Thejury returned a verdict for the defendants.

This verdict was overturned on appeal--the main ground was that thejudge did not take seriously enough the attempted coercion of a jurorwho was assaulted by a stranger demanding an unspecified verdict--and aretrial was scheduled. On the eve of it, the exhausted plaintiffssettled with the state for $675,000.00, which was divided 13 ways. Halfof it went to Dean Kahler, the most seriously wounded survivor, and only$15,000 apiece went to the families of each of the slain students, apathetically small verdict in a day when lives are accounted to be worthin the many millions of dollars. The state issued a statement of"regret" which stopped short of an apology for the events of May 4th,nine years before.

I write this just a week after the Kansas city bombing that appears tohave taken 200 lives (the rescuers are still searching the wreckage) andthe theme today is the same as 25 years ago. Hate was in the air then,as it is today. Admittedly, the First Amendment protects hate speech,whether it comes from the most marginal extremist or the highest publicofficial. Demonizing someone else for their beliefs or their race, oreven calling for their immediate assassination, is legal in Americatoday and was twenty-five years ago. But the fact that something islegal to do does not make it right to do, or relieve the speaker of anymoral responsibility for the consequences.

President Nixon created a public atmosphere in which students whoopposed the war were fair game for those who supported the government.In the week following Kent State, construction workers rioted on WallStreet, attacking antiwar demonstrators and sending many to thehospital, some permanently crippled. It was reported at the time that, aday or two after the deaths, President Nixon called the parents of theonly slain student known to be a bystander--he was a member of ROTC--toexpress condolences. The phone never rang in the other parents' houses.The message couldn't have been clearer: they had it coming.

I was fifteen that year, raised in a very comfortable middle classenvironment and very naive. Kent State was my political education. WhatI discovered that week, and that year, was that America in those timeswas perfectly willing to harass, beat and kill its own children if theydisagreed with government policy. The step from being a member of theprotected American mainstream to being a marginalized outsider, notentitled to the protection of law enforcement and fair prey to anyviolent, flag-waving bully who happened to pass, was to stand up and sayyou did not believe the Vietnam war was right.

I am not sure that anyone too young to remember those times can reallyappreciate what it was like. We know today the extent to which the FBIwas involved in dirty tricks, illegal wiretapping and burglaries againsteven moderate antiwar organizations. Prior to Kent State, I had joinedan organization called Student Mobilization Against the War. One day,their offices were burglarized and their membership lists stolen. We hadno doubt at the time that it was the government, and we were right.

I led demonstrations that week outside my high school protesting theKent State killings and, afterwards, the principal summoned me and myfather to his office and threatened to have me expelled as atrouble-maker. My father--I am very proud of him, as he was not anideological man and his opposition to the war was very muted--repliedthat if I was expelled, he would fight it "all the way to the SupremeCourt." I had done nothing else than exercise my First Amendment rightof protest. We heard nothing more about expulsion, but a close friend ofmine, who didn't have an assertive parent to stand up for him, wasthrown out of school.

That week, people came out of the woodwork--wearing black leather,chains wrapped around their fists, waving American flags--people we hadnever before seen in our neighborhoods. These patriots set up acounterdemonstration across the street from ours. For hours, a rumor wasrampant that they would attack us and that the police would notintervene--exactly what had happened on Wall Street a day or so before.Their cursing and chain-rattling became uglier until finally theysummoned their courage and charged. Someone shouted "Link arms!" andfive or six teenagers, me among them, joined to interpose our bodiesbetween the attackers and demonstrators. The Brooklyn police, unlikethose on Wall Street, or the National Guard in Kent days earlier, didnot seek or condone the killing of children. They ran in and forced theattackers back. I was fifteen then and am forty now, but I have neverhad a finer moment in my life. It was the only moment in my life that Icame close to living up to Gandhi's statement that "we must be thechange we wish to see in the world."

Here are the names of those who died at Kent State, so that they may notbe forgotten:

ALISON KRAUSE

JEFFREY MILLER

SANDRA SCHEUER

WILLIAM SCHROEDER

UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545

This email list is designed for posting news articles or event announcements of interest to UFPJ member groups. It is not a discussion list.

To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ufpj-news/

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11) Killings at Jackson State University May 14 Memorial to the incident"When the order to ceasefire was given Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18 month-old son lay dead. Across the street, behind the line of police and highway patrolmen, James Earl Green, 17, was sprawled dead. Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, was walking home from work at a local grocery store when he stopped to watch the action. Twelve other Jackson State students were struck by gunfire. The five-story dormitory was riddled by gunfire. FBI investigators estimated that more than 460 rounds struck the building, shattering every window facing the street on each floor. Investigators counted at least 160 bullet holes in the outer walls of the stairwell alone bullet holes that can still be seen today."http://www.aaregistry.com/african_american_history/1660/Killings_at_Jackson_State_University

*On this date in 1970, the Jackson State killings occurred. In the spring of that year, campus communities across this country were characterized by protests and demonstrations.

No college or University was left untouched by confrontations and continuous calls for change. At Jackson State College in Jackson, Mississippi, there was the added issue of historical racial intimidation and harassment by White motorists traveling Lynch Street, a major thoroughfare that divided the campus and linked west Jackson to downtown. On May 14-15, 1970, Jackson State students were protesting these issues as well as the May 4, 1970 tragedy at Kent State University in Ohio.

The riot began around 9:30 p.m., May 14, when rumors were spread that Fayette, Mississippi mayor Charles Evers (brother of slain Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers) and his wife had been shot and killed. Upon hearing this rumor, a small group of students rioted. That night, several White motorists had called the Jackson Police Department to complain that a group of Blacks threw rocks at them as they passed along the stretch of Lynch Street that bisected the campus. The rioting students set several fires and overturned a dump truck that had been left on campus overnight.

Jackson firefighters dispatched to the blaze met a hostile crowd that harangued them as they worked to contain the fire. Fearing for their safety, the firemen requested police backup. The police, blocked off the campus. National Guardsmen, still on alert from rioting the previous night, mounted on Armored Personnel Carriers, the guardsmen had been issued weapons, but no ammunition. Seventy-five city policemen and Mississippi State Police officers all armed, responded to the call. Their combined armed staved off the crowd long enough for the firemen to extinguish the blaze and leave.

After the firemen left, the police and state troopers marched toward a campus women's residence, weapons at the ready. At this point, the crowd numbered 75 to 100 people. Several students allegedly shouted "obscene catcalls" while others chanted and tossed bricks at the officers, who had closed to within 100 feet of the group. The officers deployed into a line facing the students. Accounts disagree as to what happened next. Some students said the police advanced in a line, warned them, and then opened fire. Others said the police abruptly opened fire on the crowd and the dormitory. Other witnesses reported that the students were under the control of a campus security officer when the police opened fire.

Police claimed they spotted a powder flare and opened fire in self-defense on the dormitory only. The students scattered, some running for the trees in front of the library, but most scrambling for the Alexander Hall west end door. There was screaming and cries of terror and pain mingled with the noise of sustained gunfire as the students struggled en masse to get through glass double doors. A few students were trampled. Others, struck by buckshot pellets or bullets, fell only to be dragged inside or left moaning in the grass.

When the order to ceasefire was given Phillip Lafayette Gibbs, 21, a junior pre-law major and father of an 18 month-old son lay dead. Across the street, behind the line of police and highway patrolmen, James Earl Green, 17, was sprawled dead. Green, a senior at Jim Hill High School in Jackson, was walking home from work at a local grocery store when he stopped to watch the action. Twelve other Jackson State students were struck by gunfire. The five-story dormitory was riddled by gunfire. FBI investigators estimated that more than 460 rounds struck the building, shattering every window facing the street on each floor. Investigators counted at least 160 bullet holes in the outer walls of the stairwell alone bullet holes that can still be seen today.

The injured students, many of whom lay bleeding on the ground outside the dormitory, were transported to University Hospital within 20 minutes of the shooting. But the ambulances were not called until after the officers picked up their shell casings, a U. S. Senate probe conducted by Senators Walter Mondale and Birch Bayh later revealed. The police and state troopers left the campus shortly after the shooting and were replaced by National Guardsmen. After the incident, Jackson authorities denied that city police took part.

12) From Cuba HUMANITY IS ANXIOUS FOR JUSTICE Message to the United States of America intellectuals and artists, read by the author-singer Silvio Rodriguez in Plaza de la Revolución on May 1st, 2005

In the last few days we have been denouncing an extremely serious and embarrasing fact, so far silenced by the great communication media, which if known in the United States, would offend the conscience of all honest men and women of Lincoln's Fatherland.

The government of said country, self-proclaimed the world leader of the so called war against terrorism, is hiding in its own territory one of the most renowned terrorists of the contemporaneous history.

There exist irrefutable prooves that Luis Posada Carriles, as well as other terrorists of Cuban origin, all of them with a broad criminal file, are being harbored by high USA government officials, in complicity with the Miami fascist anti-Cuban groups.

Cuba has been amongst the first countries to denounce the monstrous facts that took place on September 11, 2001, offering its solidarity with concrete proposals directed to the United States people.

In the conviction that absolutely no reason can justify the death of innocent persons, Cuban Revolutionaries feel deeply affected at the terrifying, unforgettable image of the attack on the Twin Towers. At the same time, with the bitter moral authority that confers us the fact of having been victims of similar acts during more than forty years, we demand that those reponsible of soatrocious crimes, as the terrorist sabotage against a Cuban airplane that caused the death of 73 civilians, among whom, all the members of the Cuban youth team of fence, be duly punished.

The pain that has damaged during years so many Cuban families does notdeserve perhaps all the world concern? Is that pain different as the one suffered and being suffered by the families that lost their beloved relatives on that ominous September 11? Is terrorism legitimate when exerted on Cuba? Crimes against civilians are justified in this case? Are they trying that the United States people's conscious coexists with this conception, lacking the most minimal ethical feeling by hiding these facts indefinitely?

Today we ask United States intellectuals and artists, men and women lovers of truth, peace and life, not to permit that the proves submitted by Cuba be ignored and to denounce through all the media at hand, the existence in the heart of the United States society, of this dangerousterrorist coalition. The Cuban people is not thirsty of revenge, but only yearns for justice.

Casa de las AmericasUnion de Escritores y Artistas de CubaUniun de Periodistas de CubaAsociacion Hermanos SaizAcademia de Ciencias de Cuba

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13) F.B.I. Will Exhume the Body of Emmett Till for an Autopsy By GRETCHEN RUETHLING Published: May 5, 2005http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/national/05exhume.html?

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14) Lifting the Censor's Veil on the Shame of Iraq By BOB HERBERT May 5, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/05/opinion/05herbert.html?hp

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15) Support for Iraq War at Lowest Level 35-percentage-point drop from high in '03 by Bill Nichols and Mona Mahmoud Published on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 by USA Today"The findings, made public on the same day that Iraq's first democratically elected government in 50 years was sworn in, show that 41% say the war was worth it; 57% say it wasn't." http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0504-12.htm

17) BAUAW has teamed up with Local Impact to launch a grassroots fax campaign to pressure SFPD to stop interfering with anti-war meetings. Send a free fax to SPFD Chief Fong demanding that she keep her officers out of political meetings.http://www.local-impact.orghttp://www.local-impact.org/takeaction18.html

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18) IRAQ: Making a killing: the big business of war Doug Lorimer “While nearly 100,000 Iraqis and 1600 US troops have died as a result of the Iraq war and tens of thousands have been severely wounded, the war has proven to be extremely lucrative for the Houston-based oil services company Halliburton and the San Francisco-based construction company Bechtel. These are the two largest private contractors to the US occupation forces in Iraq.”http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/625/625p20.htm

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19) Army misses April recruiting goal by 42 percent By Will Dunham Tue May 3, 2005 05:41 PM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8378239

21) In Kansas, Darwinism Goes on Trial Once More By JODI WILGOREN May 6, 2005 "In the first of three daylong hearings being referred to here as a direct descendant of the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee, a parade of Ph.D.'s testified Thursday about the flaws they saw in mainstream science's explanation of the origins of life. It was one part biology lesson, one part political theater, and the biggest stage yet for the emerging movement known as intelligent design, which posits that life's complexity cannot be explained without a supernatural creator."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/education/06evolution.html

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22) G.I. DENIED CONSCIENTIOUS-OBJECTOR STATUS By Russ Bynum Associated Press April 29, 2005"SAVANNAH, Ga. -- The Army said Friday it has denied conscientious objector status for a soldier who refused to deploy to Iraq for a second tour, saying he became morally opposed to war during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.Sgt. Kevin Benderman, 40, filed his objector application Dec. 28, just 10 days before he skipped his unit's deployment flight. The Army mechanic faces a court-martial May 12 on charges of desertion and missing movement."http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/29/AR2005042900477.html

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23) One year since the torture revelations at Abu Ghraib Mistrial in reservist's court martial By Bill Van Auken "One year after photographs of American soldiers torturing and humiliating naked and hooded Iraqi prisoners triggered a wave of international revulsion, the US Army was forced Wednesday to declare a mistrial in the prosecution of one of a handful of junior-ranking enlisted personnel charged in the matter. Private First Class Lynndie England, an Army reservist, had pled guilty two days earlier to charges of mistreating Iraqi detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison and conspiracy. "I had a choice, but I chose to do what my friends wanted me to," said England."6 May 2005http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/may2005/abu-m06.shtml

ARCATA, CA -- May 5 -- The Arcata City Council last night adopted a Resolution that commits the Council "to do anything within its power to influence the Federal Government to end immediately the American occupation of Iraq," and "to support both those residents who have returned from serving in Iraq and those who have refused to serve for moral or legal reasons."

The Resolution affirms that "the City Council is our most locally accessible governmental body and the most direct political connection between individuals and the federal government."

It budgets $1000 annually to a newly mandated City Peace Commission that will inform returning troops about locally available services, and inform troops that refuse to serve in Iraq about the possible outcomes of their choice and about access to free legal counsel.

The Commission will also work "to limit access of military recruiters to school and college campuses, and to provide equal time for views offering alternatives to military service."

The Resolution further commits the City Council to consider placing a measure on a future city-wide ballot, asking voters if Arcata should be declared a sanctuary for those who refuse to participate in war.

The Resolution was adopted by a 3-2 vote, with Green Party Council Members: Groves, Meserve and Pitino in favor and Machi and Wheetley opposed. The vote came near midnight after a marathon public comment period that lasted for over two hours, with comments from forty concerned citizens. Three quarters of those speaking favored adoption, citing the local monetary and human impact of the Iraq war, and the need to support resisters and to speak out as a city against an illegal and immoral war. Those who opposed adoption urged the Council to stick to local issues and cited a Chamber of Commerce poll of its members, indicating that many merchants feared loss of business through boycotts, if the Resolution passed.

The "Municipal Response to Federal Lawlessness" is the latest version of a resolution that was first brought before the Council in early February under the title: "Resolution Supporting Troops Who Refuse to Serve in Illegal Wars." Earlier versions were discussed at three City Council meetings and at a Town Hall Meeting that drew over 120 participants, but they failed to gain majority support of the Council.

Veterans for Peace, Chapter 56, The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and the Redwood Peace and Justice Center all endorsed the Resolution.

We encourage cities that may wish to pass similar resolutions to contact us at greenarcata@hotmail.com.

RESOLUTION NO. 045-52 MUNICIPAL RESPONSE TO FEDERAL LAWLESSNESS

Whereas, a large majority of Arcata residents oppose the war on Iraq for one or more of the following reasons: The war is ill-advised and unnecessary. The war is based on lies. The war is illegal. The war is immoral. The war does not increase our national security.

Whereas, the cost of the war in dollars is a root cause of local economic hardships.

Whereas, the human cost of the war is unacceptable.

Whereas, issues of local and global importance are intimately linked, and the City Council is our most locally accessible governmental body and the most direct political connection between individuals and the federal government.

Therefore be it resolved that the City Council of the City of Arcata budgets $1000 annually (which amounts to approximately one penny for every person killed in Iraq as a result of the US invasion, currently estimated at over 100,000 civilian deaths and over 1500 American military deaths) to be used as outlined below.

Be it further resolved that The City Council of the City of Arcata commits itself to do anything within its power to influence the Federal Government to end immediately the American occupation of Iraq.

Be it further resolved that The City Council of the City of Arcata supports those enlisted men and women who are currently serving in Iraq by repeating its demand for the immediate withdrawal of all troops; and the Council commits itself to support, in any way within its power, both those residents who have returned from serving in Iraq and those who have refused to serve for moral or legal reasons;

Be it further resolved that The City Council of the City of Arcata will consider placing a measure on a future city-wide ballot, asking voters if Arcata should be declared a sanctuary for those who refuse to participate in war.

Be it further resolved that The City Council of the City of Arcata will take the steps necessary to expand the mandate of the Nuclear Weapons Free Zone Commission to include "Promoting peace locally and globally", to rename the Commission as the "Nuclear Weapons Free Zone and Peace Commission", and to empower the Commission to use the additional $1000 budget allocation, as they are able within budget and time constraints, to: · Inform troops returning to Arcata from foreign duty about locally available services. · Inform resident members of the armed forces about access to free legal advice and counsel for those who are considering refusal, or who have already refused to serve in the war on Iraq or other wars. · Work with local school boards and Humboldt State University to limit access of military recruiters to school and college campuses, and to provide equal time for views offering alternatives to military service.

Be it further resolved that The City Council of the City of Arcata will provide ongoing opportunities for public discussion of current issues by sponsoring regular Town Hall Meetings at our public facilities.

25) MAY 17, 2005, IS TAKE BACK OUR SCHOOLS DAY! On May 17, we will teach in the streets of Oakland and in the schools! http://www.ednotinc.org/may1705.html

In honor of the historic verdict Brown v. Board of Education , which promised equal public education for all on May 17, 1954, a growing tide of youth, educators, parents, union members, citizens and community organizations are calling for an end to the destruct takeover of the Oakland schools.

How Teachers and Staff Can Participate

Field Trip for Students. Noon - 1 p.m.: Rally at Frank Ogawa Plaza (at Oakland City Hall) 1 p.m. - 4 p.m.: student led teach-ins at the First Unitarian Church, 14th and Castro streets 4:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.: Rally at the State Building on 15th and Clay streets

Coordinate. Organize your students/parents to march or car-pool to the State Building for the 4:30PM Rally, after school.

On May 17, Teach About These Issues at a School-wide Assembly or in Your Classroom. Education Not Incarceration will provide materials related to Brown v. Board of Education and its connection with today's school conditions. Curriculum will be available at a teacher in-service on May 10 (see details below) and at www.ednotinc.org .

Attend the Teacher Training. Tuesday, May 10, 4 p.m. -5:30 p.m. at the Oakland Education Association office, 272 East 12th St. Activities, materials, and other resources will be available.

May 17: Take Back Our Schools Day is a project of Education Not Incarceration; Oakland Education Association; Organize Da BAY, a coalition of youth dedicated to collective action to reclaim public education, including Youth Together, Californians for Justice, Tojil and the Xicana Moratorium Coalition; the Coalition to Defend and Improve Public Education, which includes Oakland parents, students, educators, politicians, and representatives from ACORN, Oakland Federation of Teachers, Million Worker March, American Federated County State Municipal Employees, Bay Area Parent Leadership Action Network, Oakland Parents Together, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, CalCARE, PUEBLO, and the National Lawyers Guild.

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26) Fidel Castro Warns Against a US Invasion of Venezuela Havana, May 5 (P26).-"A US invasion of Venezuela would set the hemisphere on fire," warned Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday evening.

In an address to the nation, broadcast on Cuban radio and television, the head of State affirmed that should the United States decide to attack that nation it would have to occupy all of a burning Latin America, with or without the support of the Organization of American States. And an invasion of Cuba would cost them a hundred times more than the price they are currently paying in Iraq.

Cuba's leader devoted most of his presentation to explain the potential of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), whose principles of solidarity and cooperation are being applied to Cuban-Venezuelan relations.

In the same vein, Fidel Castro rebuffed statements made by Roger Noriega, Assistant Secretary of State, who described the new integrationist project as mockery.

The Cuban leader asked rhetorically whether a million Venezuelans who have learned to read and write thanks to a Cuban-sponsored literacy drive is mockery, or 17 million people who did not receive medical attention before Chavez took power and now cango to a doctor's office and get free medications.

Noriega is a brute, said the head of State, referring to a project to train over 40,000 Venezuelan young people as physicians in the coming years.

Does he (Noriega) think it is mockery to put an end to unemployment in a country that was plundered or healing eye diseases of thousands of people who would go blind abandoned on the streets, noted Fidel Castro.

With respect to latest attacks by the US official, the Cuban leader underscored that the White House will not succeed in frustrating the programs for the people's benefit which a re currently underway in Cuba and Venezuela.

Join Excite! - http://www.excite.comThe most personalized portal on the Web!

For more information, please visit us at www.handsoffvenezuela.org

Donate to the Hands Off Venezuela campaign! We rely entirely on our supporters and sympathizers in the labor, anti-war, solidarity, and other progressive movements in order to build this campaign. You can make a donation and buy stickers and DVDs at: http://www.handsoffvenezuela.org/wrapper/ We also offer shirts, buttons and more at: http://www.cafepress.com/handsoffvenez

All proceeds go towards building the HOV campaign.

Yahoo! Groups Links

To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handsoffvenezuela/ From a message dated 5/6/05 7:36:49 AM, cortgreene@excite.com

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27) Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Alert Tell Coke: We Won't Stop! - Take Action and Sign USAS's Email Dear Campaign Supporters: Students, workers and community members have been pressuring Coke for 4 years now to meet the demands of SINALTRAINAL in Colombia and the National Alliance of People's Movements in India. However, Coke has responded with continued denials and public relations efforts to "clean up their image"- without actually addressing the human rights abuses that exist in bottling plants worldwide. Tell Coke and college administrators from the University of California, University of Michigan, University of Montana, University of Iowa, New York University, Indiana University, Rutgers University and Hofstra University that students won't stop until Coke takes responsibility for its actions here and abroad!! Take Action and send an email http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/coke

Action Alert!Vigil in Solidarity with Colombia's Peace CommunitiesMay 6 Vigil in Solidarity with Colombia's Peace Communities and a Call for an End to U.S, Support for Colombia's Military.Disarm and AELLA (Association of Latino and Latin-American Students) at the CUNY Graduate Center are organizing a vigil at the Colombian Consulate to the U.S. in New York.As our outrage over the massacre of eight members of the San Jose Peace Community grows, let us come together and be heard as a collective voice of opposition to a misguided U.S. foreign policy and an exhibit of support for the idea of Peace in Colombia.Why: We have chosen May 6 (with its proximity to Mother's Day) as a symbolic date to stand in unity with all the Mothers who have lost their children to this devastating conflict.When: Friday, May 6, 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.Where: The Colombian Consulate in New York City (10 E. 46th St., between Madison & 5th Avenue, NYC)The New York vigil will take place in coordination with vigils happening across the country between April 26 and May 8:Cleveland, OH - April 26Hartford, CT - April 26Chicago, IL - May 6Minneapolis, MN - May 6Seattle, WA - May 6Washington, DC - May 6Bally, PA - May 6Contact Person:Debora Upegui: dupegui@gc.cuny.eduJoshua Bardfield: jbardfield@disarm.org

Campaign to Stop KILLER COKEWe are seeking your help to stop a gruesome cycle of murders, kidnappings, and torture of union leaders and organizers involved in daily life-and-death struggles at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia, South America. "If we lose the fight against Coca-Cola, we will first lose our union, next our jobs and then our lives." SINALTRAINAL Vice President Juan Carlos Galvis

Please donate to the Campaign. http://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=stopkillercoke%40aol.com&no_note=1&tax=0&currency%20_code=USD

Learn the truth about The Coca-Cola Co. "We believe the evidence shows that Coca-Cola and its corporate network are rife with immorality, corruption and complicity in murder." Campaign to Stop Killer Coke/Corporate Campaign, Inc. Director Ray Rogers Visit www.KillerCoke.orghttp://www.killercoke.org

2) PRESS CONFERENCE TO DENOUNCE GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER'S SUPPORT FOR THE BORDER VIGILANTES! NO BORDER VIGILANTES IN CALIFORNIA! Please come to a press conference on Thursday, May 5, 11:00 am, California State Building, 455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, to express outrage over the Governor's comments praising the Arizona "Minutemen" and welcoming the vigilantes' plans to be present at the California border with México this August. WHAT: Immigrant communities and allies speak out against Governor Schwarzenegger's support for the Arizona border vigilantes and their intent to come to California this August. WHEN: Thursday, May 5, 11 am. WHERE: California State Building, 455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco. For more information, call Renee Saucedo, (415) 553-3404.

4) Call for a GENERAL CONGRESS of WOMENSUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005, 4:00 P.M. Start: 4:00 p.m. at Vietnam War Memorial, Capitol Grounds, Sacramento State Capitol Finish: 6:00p.m. with Circles for Peace

5) Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts By THOM SHANKER "The annual 'Chairman's Risk Assessment,' which is required by Congress, warned that additional major combat operations "may result in significantly extended campaign timelines, and achieving campaign objectives may result in higher casualties and collateral damage....General Myers noted that the American military does not face 'extreme risk,' the highest level, in any of the categories analyzed in the report. Among the steps he listed as being in progress were substantial improvements in coordinating military efforts with civil authorities, who are 'playing a critical role in disrupting potential terrorist attacks against the United States,' he wrote."May 3, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/politics/03military.html?hp&ex=1115179200&en=8e61d2b8d4bd2e4b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

7) Working People Across the Globe March on International Workers Day New York March Unites Labor, Community, Youth, Antiwar and Immigrant Rights ActivistsIn this email:a) May Day: Hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets around the globeb) May Day in NYCc) How you can get involved

8) Widow of soldier says Prime Minister to blame for his death By Danielle Demetriou 03 May 2005http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=635214

Honolulu, HI ˆ A group of nonviolent protesters have entered Bachmaan Hall, the University of Hawaii administration building, and have demanded an end to the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) project, which would establish a secret military research facility to conduct Navy weapons development. The group -- consisting of students, faculty, and concerned community members -- has prepared a formal statement of legal, moral, health, cultural, and political reasons why UARC should be dropped. They have prepared a formal letter to the US Navy for Interim President David McClain to sign stating that UH is withdrawing its UARC application, because of the substantial public concern over increased secret military research. The nonviolent protesters have stated that they will not leave Bachman Hall until Mr. McClain publicly declares the end of UARC.

*** MORE Full text of student/faculty/community demands follows:

28 April 2005 University of Hawaii at Manoa Oâ'ahu, Hawaiâ'i

To: The people of Hawaiâ'i Cc: University of Hawaii Interim President David McClain

Aloha â'aina kakou:

We, the students, faculty, and community are the â˘ohana of the University of Hawaii. The health and security of our public institution of higher learning, and the community it serves, is our chief concern.

We are assembled here with a simple demand: that the highest authority of our University of Hawaii, Interim President David McClain, formally end the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) project, which threatens the soul of our university and endangers the health and welfare of our community with secret military weapons research.

Frustrated by the UH Manoa Chancellor's lack of transparency and honesty about the UARC, and concerned that the Administration is already determined to establish the UARC over the serious concerns and overwhelming opposition from all sectors of the campus and community, we are compelled to resort to nonviolent civil resistance to save our university. We remain steadfast in our opposition to the UARC project for the following reasons:

1. UARC would be involved in military weapons related research that is incompatible with the strategic plan, core values and educational mission of UH. 2. UARC compounds the historical injustices committed by US forces against Native Hawaiians and fuels military expansion and its negative impacts on the land and people of Hawaiâ'i. The Kualiâ'i Council, the body representing the interests of Native Hawaiians on the UH Manoa campus, testified before the Board of Regents: Since the American military has done more to damage our ancestral lands than any other entity, we cannot support the establishment of a UARC at the University of Hawaiâ'i.ˇ 3. Military secrecy subverts academic freedom and public accountability. Research programs need not be classified to be deemed privileged, and thus secret. The tragic history of secret military research programs does not permit us to trust that the UARC will be safe or beneficial, as proponents argue. 4. UARC is bad business for UH; it diverts resources from other research opportunities, imposes restrictions on the types of research pursuable, and places constraints on publishing. UARC may be in violation of Federal Acquisition Regulations that require full and open competition for major federal contracts. 5. UARC is implicated in and tainted by the Navy criminal investigation of alleged mismanagement of classified research contracts. The military "pork barrel," coupled with secrecy and possibly dangerous technologies makes UH more susceptible to ethical lapses. 6. Recent audit reports indicate that the UH Administration is currently unable to adequately handle existing research contracts. 7. UARC would be a major shift in direction for UH and the beginning of UH's demise ˆ a mark on UH's reputation forever. 8. UARC is substantially different from existing faculty driven research. UARC would be like a marriage between UH and the Navy to provide the Navy with research on demand: 'problem solving' vs. true research that expands human knowledge. 9. The process has been flawed, with the UH Administration pursuing secretive discussions for more than two years and failing to inform or involve the public until after significant decisions had been made and provisional board approval had been given.

For these reasons, and for others which may exist in the consciences of the people, we resolve to remain in Bachman Hall until such time as Interim President David McClain declares an end to the UARC proposal. Such a declaration is essential to the survival and prosperity of our community's institution of higher learning. Until Mr. McClain makes that declaration, we will occupy and demilitarize Bachman Hall. We call out to all members of the UH community, the people of Hawaiâ'i and people of the world to join us in demanding that UH President McClain stop the UARC now. Make education the priority, not war.

The Advertiser reports : "David McClain, University of Hawai'i interim president, has promised to reply today to a pared-down list of demands from the coalition of students, faculty and community activists occupying his office in opposition to establishing a Navy research center at the university." The Star-Bulletin also has a story , as does UH Ka Leo .http://www.hawaiiankingdom.info/

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2) PRESS CONFERENCE TO DENOUNCE GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER'S SUPPORT FOR THE BORDER VIGILANTES! NO BORDER VIGILANTES IN CALIFORNIA! Please come to a press conference on Thursday, May 5, 11:00 am, California State Building, 455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco, to express outrage over the Governor's comments praising the Arizona "Minutemen" and welcoming the vigilantes' plans to be present at the California border with México this August. WHAT: Immigrant communities and allies speak out against Governor Schwarzenegger's support for the Arizona border vigilantes and their intent to come to California this August. WHEN: Thursday, May 5, 11 am. WHERE: California State Building, 455 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco. For more information, call Renee Saucedo, (415) 553-3404.

We urge you to join us in a "National Day of Action for GI Resisters" on Tuesday May 10, 2005. This is the day before the US military is planning to bring sailor Pablo Paredes and soldier Kevin Benderman before military court martial tribunals for their opposition to the Iraq War. They face forfeiture of pay and benefits, and military jail time.

On December 6, 2004, Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes refused to board his ship as it left the San Diego Naval Station in support of the Iraq War and occupation. At the time of his refusal, Pablo said he hoped his protest might inspire other GI's to refuse to take part in the war.

On January 5, 2005, Kevin Benderman refused to deploy for a second tour of duty in Iraq with the Army's Third Infantry Division. At the same time seventeen other soldiers from his unit went AWOL, two tried to kill themselves and one had a relative shoot him in the leg to avoid deploying.

Both men applied for discharge from the US military as conscientious objectors. The military has wrongly rejected both claims.

It's time for us to escalate public pressure and action in support of Pablo, Kevin and the thousands of other courageous men and women who have followed their conscience to uphold international law and to take a principled stand against the unjust, illegal war and occupation of Iraq. It's time we had their backs.

Objection and resistance by military servicepersons is a healthy and important assertion of Democracy in a country where the decisions to invade Iraq, to maintain an occupation, and engage in widespread human right violations and torture were made undemocratically in violation of international law and based on continuing lies and disinformation.

Please join us by organizing a public demonstration, vigil or rally of support on May 10. Every action, no matter how large or small is important.

Also,

* Send letters of support and donations to cover legal fees * to Pablo and Kevin via their websites listed below.

* Come to San Diego, California (Pablo) or Fort Stewart, Georgia * (Kevin) to show your support during their trials.

* Write letters to the editor, and help educate your

* organization, church, union, school, co-workers and community.

Resisting illegal occupation and war is not a crime! The right to conscientious objection is being systematically violated by the military. Those objectors who are publicly asserting their rights are being singled out for punishment. We demand that military personnel retain their right to follow their conscience, publicly dissent and that their basic democratic rights be respected.

More info about Pablo Paredes: http://www.SwiftSmartVeterans.com More info about Kevin Benderman: http://www.BendermanDefense.org For May 10 actions, leaflets, and more: http://www.CourageToResist.org Contact: courage@riseup.net

Call initiated by Courage to Resist, a new group of concerned community members, veterans and military families organizing support for military objectors to illegal war and occupation and the underlying policies of empire. We have adopted a people power strategy to weaken the pillars that support the Iraq war and occupation by supporting GI resistance, which together with counter-recruitment and draft resistance work can remove the supply of obedient troops.

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4) Call for a GENERAL CONGRESS of WOMENSUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005, 4:00 P.M. Start: 4:00 p.m. at Vietnam War Memorial, Capitol Grounds, Sacramento State Capitol Finish: 6:00p.m. with Circles for Peace

As many of you know, Mother's Day was proclaimed by Julia Ward Howe in 1870 as a call for women to promote "the great and general interests of peace". I've copied her proclamation at the end of this email.

This Mother's Day- Sunday May 8 --we are responding to her call for a "General Congress of Women" with an event at the state capitol in Sacramento. I hope that you will be there to reclaim this day and share your thoughts about how we can move forward toward Peace.

We continue to honor the origins of Mother's Day as we gather in front of the Vietnam War Memorial on the capitol grounds in Sacramento Sunday May 8th to declare "All we want for Mother's Day is the troops home from Iraq NOW". We know that all too soon there will be yet another war memorial - we need to make this our very final one!

We're calling on mothers, daughters, grandmothers to join CODE PINK : Women for Peace, Gold Star Families for Peace, Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors, Mother Speak, and other groups and individuals as we embrace Julia Ward Howe's direction to first "bewail & commemorate the dead" and then call for a "General Congress of Women without limit of nationality" to promote the "great & general interests of peace".

We ask women to bring our ideas for future actions for peace and to end war - such as the call to return our National Guard - and share with each other as we continue to build a strong, active women's movement for peace & justice.

www.bayareacodepink.org

WEAR YOUR PINK, BRING YOUR MUSIC MAKER!

Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870

Arise then...women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts! Whether your baptism be of water or of tears! Say firmly: "We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies, Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, For caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience. We, the women of one country, Will be too tender of those of another country To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice." Blood does not wipe our dishonor, Nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil At the summons of war, Let women now leave all that may be left of home For a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means Whereby the great human family can live in peace... Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar, But of God - In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask That a general congress of women without limit of nationality, May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient And the earliest period consistent with its objects, To promote the alliance of the different nationalities, The amicable settlement of international questions, The great and general interests of peace.

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5) Pentagon Says Iraq Effort Limits Ability to Fight Other Conflicts By THOM SHANKER "The annual 'Chairman's Risk Assessment,' which is required by Congress, warned that additional major combat operations "may result in significantly extended campaign timelines, and achieving campaign objectives may result in higher casualties and collateral damage....General Myers noted that the American military does not face 'extreme risk,' the highest level, in any of the categories analyzed in the report. Among the steps he listed as being in progress were substantial improvements in coordinating military efforts with civil authorities, who are 'playing a critical role in disrupting potential terrorist attacks against the United States,' he wrote."May 3, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/03/politics/03military.html?hp&ex=1115179200&en=8e61d2b8d4bd2e4b&ei=5094&partner=homepage

It was late September when the 21-year-old man, fresh from a three-week commitment in a psychiatric ward, showed up at an Army recruiting station in southern Ohio. The two recruiters there wasted no time signing him up, and even after the man's parents told them he had bipolar disorder - a diagnosis that would disqualify him - he was all set to be shipped to boot camp, and perhaps Iraq after that, before senior officers found out and canceled the enlistment.

Despite an Army investigation, the recruiters were not punished and were still working in the area late last month.

Two hundred miles away, in northern Ohio, another recruiter said the incident hardly surprised him. He has been bending or breaking enlistment rules for months, he said, hiding police records and medical histories of potential recruits. His commanders have encouraged such deception, he said, because they know there is no other way to meet the Army's stiff recruitment quotas.

"The problem is that no one wants to join," the recruiter said. "We have to play fast and loose with the rules just to get by."

These two cases in a single state - one centered on a recruit, the other on a recruiter - may lie at the outer limits of the fudging and finagling that are occurring in enlistment offices as the Army tries to maintain its all-volunteer force in a time of war. But that cheating, evidenced by Army statistics that show an increase in cases against recruiters, is disturbing many of the men and women charged with the uphill task of refilling the ranks.

Interviews with more than two dozen recruiters in 10 states hint at the extent of their concern, if not the exact scope of the transgressions. Several spoke of concealing mental-health histories and police records. They described falsified documents, wallet-size cheat sheets slipped to applicants before the military's aptitude test and commanding officers who look the other way. And they voiced doubts about the quality of some troops destined for the front lines.

The recruiters insisted on anonymity to avoid being disciplined, but their accounts were consistent, and the specifics were verified in several cases by documents and interviews with military officials and applicants' families.

Yesterday, the issue drew national attention as CBS News reported that a high-school student outside Denver recorded two recruiters as they advised him how to cheat. The student, David McSwane, said one recruiter had told him how to create a diploma from a nonexistent school, while the other had helped him buy a product to cleanse traces of marijuana and psychedelic mushrooms from his body. The Army said the recruiters had been suspended while it investigated.

By the Army's own count, there were 320 substantiated cases of what it calls recruitment improprieties in 2004, up from 199 in 1999, the last year it missed its active-duty recruitment goal, and 213 in 2002, the year before the war in Iraq started. The offenses varied from threats and coercion to false promises that applicants would not be sent to Iraq. Many incidents involved more than one recruiter, and the number of those investigated rose to 1,118 last year, or nearly one in five of all recruiters, up from 913 in 2002, or one in eight.

Maj. Gen. Michael D. Rochelle, the Army's commander of recruiting, said the increases reflected a renewed resolve to find and prevent improprieties, rather than any significant rise in cheating.

Recruiters and some senior Army officials, however, said that for every impropriety that is found, at least two more are never discovered. And the Army's figures show that it is not punishing serious offenses as it once did. In 2002, roughly 5 of every 10 recruiters who were found to have committed improprieties intentionally or through gross negligence were relieved of duty; last year, that number slipped to 3 in 10.

General Rochelle said that decline could be explained, in part, by his decision two years ago to end a policy that nearly always dismissed serious offenders from recruiting.

"My shift in thinking was that if an individual was accused of doctoring a high-school diploma, it was an open-and-shut case," he said. "It may still be, but now I look at person's value to the command first."

Recruiting has always been a difficult job, and some say the scandals that have periodically surfaced are inevitable. But the temptation to cut corners is particularly strong today, some experts on the military say, as deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan have created a desperate need for new soldiers, and as the Army has fallen short of its recruitment goals in recent months, including April.

"The more pressure you put on recruiters, the more likely you'll be to find people seeking ways to beat the system," said David Segal, a military sociologist at the University of Maryland.

Over the last six months, the Army has relaxed its requirements on age and education - a move that Mr. Segal says may lead recruiters to go easier on applicants, with the expectation that those who are unqualified now may be deemed eligible later on.

Recruiters, who typically work far from commanders in storefront offices, are the Army's primary gatekeepers. They are required to press applicants to disclose any police record or medical problems, from asthma to knee injuries, that could disqualify them.

But applicants can lie, or withhold damaging information. So recruiters are expected to check court, educational and criminal records to confirm details and search for others that have not been disclosed. The records are checked by senior officers and then sent to a regional processing office that arranges aptitude and medical tests; it may check into problems revealed in the files but largely depends on the digging done by recruiters.

The two cases in Ohio show just how badly the system can veer off track. In the case of the 21-year-old who had just left a psychiatric ward, it is not clear what he revealed when he approached recruiters in September. He could not be reached for comment through court-appointed lawyers and his parents, who asked that he not be identified.

But details of the young man's troubled past could have been easily found on the Web sites of local courts. County court records show that he was arrested in July and charged with assault; though the charge was dismissed after his accuser failed to appear in court, the records could have raised a red flag.

Probate court records show that in a case later last summer, a judge committed the man, finding him a danger to himself and others after he showed up at his parents' door bloodied and disoriented. He was released in late September under the guidance of a treatment program.

Recruiters are not required to check probate court records unless they are made aware of a specific case. But the man's parents said they did just that.

After hearing that he had enlisted, they said, they wanted to make sure the Army understood his condition. They said they went to the recruiting station with the probate court record, gave recruiters the court's Internet address and even showed photos of their son. The recruiters, they said, claimed they had never seen him. "They acted sympathetic," the father said.

The parents say they went back twice more after the recruiters failed to return their calls. At their urging, their congressmen in early October finally learned that the recruiters had indeed enlisted their son. Days before he was scheduled to ship out, the young man was disqualified only after the father told the commander of the regional processing station about his illness.

In an interview, the commander confirmed the general outlines of the case. The Army would say only that at least two recruiters had been investigated in the case, which is closed. But the man's father said Army officials told him they had found no wrongdoing. "The fact that they would recruit someone straight out of a psychiatric hospitalization give me a break," he said. "They were willing to put my son and other recruits at risk. It's beyond my comprehension, and appalling."

Co-workers in the stations where the recruiters worked said last month in interviews that the two were still on the job. One of the two declined to comment when reached on his recruiting-command cellphone; the other did not return a half-dozen phone messages.

Recruiters in Ohio, New York, Washington, Texas and New England said that as long as an offending recruiter met his enlistment quota of roughly two recruits a month, punishment was unlikely.

"The saying here is, 'Production is power,' " the recruiter in northern Ohio said. "Produce, and all is good."

He said that in the last year, he had seen recruiters falsify documents so that applicants could earn ranks

they were not qualified to hold. When enlistees tested positive for marijuana, he said, recruiters coached them to drink gallons of water before visiting military doctors. Occasionally, the recruiter said, he has been ordered to conceal police records and minor medical conditions like attention deficit disorder, which usually disqualifies a candidate. When he and others resisted such orders, he said, superiors threatened to ruin their careers.

The recruiter, who has fought in several conflicts including the current war in Iraq, said one in every three people he had enlisted had a problem that needed concealing, or a waiver. "The only people who want to join the Army now have issues," he said. "They're troubled, with health, police or drug problems."

The recruiter said he believed in the Army and his job, often working 80-hour weeks. But he sometimes worries about the mental capabilities of those who are enlisted, he said, especially as they move up the ranks.

"If they are in a leadership position and they're sending 10 or 11 people all over the place because they can't focus on the job at hand," he said, "we're in trouble."

Copyright 2005 The New York Times

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7) Working People Across the Globe March on International Workers Day New York March Unites Labor, Community, Youth, Antiwar and Immigrant Rights ActivistsIn this email:a) May Day: Hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets around the globeb) May Day in NYCc) How you can get involved

May Day: Hundreds of thousands of workers take to the streets around the globe

Millions of workers, all around the globe from Mozambique to Manila marched on Sunday in May Day rallies and marches demanding a living wage, the right to organize, and immigrant rights and in opposition to U.S. aggression..

In Germany, more than half a million workers rallied against layoffs and demanding an increase in wages.

In Bangladesh, thousands of workers rallied in Dhaka to demand a living wage and better safety standards, just weeks after a garment factory collapsed, killing 73 workers.

In Nepal, thousands attended two peaceful marches in the capital city Kathmandu, calling for the U.S.-backed King Gyanendra to end to martial law.

In Japan, hundreds of thousands marched calling for a global ban on nuclear weapons, as the 60th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki approaches this year.

In the Philippines, more than 10,000 marched through the streets of Manila against the puppet government President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In Cuba, more than a million rallied in Havana, where they celebrated the role of working people and condemned U.S. aggression.

In Russia, twenty thousand trade unionists marched down Tverskaya Street, one of Moscow's main boulevards, demanding a living wage.

In Turkey, workers organized three different rallies in Istanbul, despite a government ban on May Day events.

In Mozambique, at least 30,000 marched through the streets of Maputo, under the slogan, "Mozambican workers in the struggle against HIV/AIDS." Marchers also demanded an increase in the minimum wage and back wages for factory workers, some of whom haven't been paid for months.

May Day in NYC

In New York City, a unique and historic May Day march and rally was called by a coalition of labor, antiwar, community, and immigrant rights activists.

The Million Worker March Movement and the Troops Out Now Coalition , organizers of the event, were initially told by the NYPD that the city would not issue a permit for any May Day march, to any location, on any route. The two coalitions, determined to march, organized a campaign, involving thousands of phone calls, emails, faxes, and letters to the Mayor and the NYPD, as well as the threat of a law suit, that forced the city to back down.

More than a thousand turned out for the rally, with the march swelling to 1,500 as passers by stopped and joined in.

The lineup of speakers at the rally points to the political significance of this event, a first effort to revive May Day in the U.S., as progressive labor leaders joined with immigrant rights activists, antiwar activists, and international solidarity organizers to proclaim solidarity with the struggles of working and oppressed people across the globe.

The program began with a recorded message Speakers included:Clarence Thomas, ILWU, Million Worker March co-convener Brenda Stokely, President of DC 1707 AFSCME, Million WorkerMarch co-convener Gerardo Cajamarca, SINALTRAINAL - exiled Colombian unionist Samia Halaby, Defend Palestine Chris Silvera, Chair of the Teamsters National Black Caucus Charles Barron and Margarita Lopez, members of the New York CityCouncil Narciso Castillo, Accion 21 Immigrant Rights NJTeresa Gutierrez, NY Committee to Free the Cuban Five Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition Carl Webb, member of the National Guard who refused to deployto Iraq Nana Soul, Blackwaxx Recordings, Artists & ActivistsUnited for Peace Bernier Achilles, Haiti Support Network Jesse Heiwa, Queers for Peace and Justice LeiLani Dowell, FIST (Fight Imperialism- Stand Together) Sara Flounders, International Action CenterDustin Langley, No Draft, No WayTylon Usavior, Blackwaxx RecordingsErik Anders-Nilsson, Jersey City Peace Movementrepresentatives from Casa Freehold, an immigrants rightsorganization in Freehold, NJand other labor and community organizers.

Cultural performances by Spiritchild, Foundation, Catherine Moon,& Billionaires for BushThe highlight of the day was a spirited march down busy 14th St., which stopped at several non-union retail outlets, including Dwayne Reade and Whole Foods. The march also stopped in front of Beth Israel, a major medical complex that is facing budget cuts, layoffs, and potential closing. Marchers chanted ,"Healthcare, Not Warfare!"

The march ended with a short closing rally in Union Square.

Police demonstrated their frustration at being forced to grant a permit by storming the stage at the very minute the sound permit expired at 5:00 pm.

The Revive May Day March was called for last October at the Million Worker March in Washington DC more than 6 months ago. When organizers of Troops Out Now Coalition and United For Peace and Justice met just prior to May Day, the Troops Out Now Coalition proposed that messages of unity in opposition to U.S. war be exchanged. Leslie Cagan, on behalf of UFPJ, sent a message defending the right to march to the Bloomberg Administration, when NYC Police Department originally denied Troops Out Now and Million Worker March the right to hold a march on May Day.

The Troops Out Now Coalition offered a unity statement in support of the thousands who marched from the UN to Central Park that read, in part, "Even though our movement will be gathering in different parts of NYC, let no one be mistaken, our messages overlap, and our arms are locked in solidarity with each other."

How you can get involved:

a) Contact us to find out how you can help & to receive important updates: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/comments.html

b) Form a local organizing center: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/may1orgcentsignup.html

c) Donate to help with organizing expenses: http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html

Anyone can subscribe. Send an email request toAction.News-subscribe@organizerweb.comSubscribing and unsubscribing can also be done on the Web athttp://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/action.news

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8) Widow of soldier says Prime Minister to blame for his death By Danielle Demetriou 03 May 2005http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=635214

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BAUAW NEWSLETTER - MONDAY, MAY 2, 2005

1) May 7th Mother's Day Peace Walk

2) Supreme Court to Review Recruiting Law By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:21 a.m. ET May 2, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Colleges-Military.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=866e748c4c561f09&ei=5094&partner=homepage

3) How Far Will The Army Go? CBS4 Denver | news4colorado.com How far will U.S. Army recruiters go to bring young men and women into their ranks? An Arvada West High School senior recently decided to find out. The following is CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger's report. . Apr 28, 2005 9:59 pm US/Mountain http://news4colorado.com/localnews/local_story_118125046.html

5) Join Howard Zinn and Lynne Steward and sign onto to the text for a full page ad we are running the San Francisco State University newspaper in defense of anti-military recruiter student protesters. From: chretientodd@aol.com To: counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com ;moos-bay@yahoogroups.com

6) US Wants to Sell Israel 'Bunker-Buster' Bombs by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 by the Financial Times http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0427-05.htm

8) This is our Guernica Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail The Guardian Wednesday April 27, 2005 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1471011,00.html

12) Memorial for Sakia Gunn, a black lesbian who was murdered in a hate crime two years ago. The memorial will take place on May 22, 2pm, at Harvey Milk Plaza. Please put it on your calendars now. There will a few community speakers and some poetry. BADLANDS BAR, IN THE CASTRO, S.F., FOUND GUILTY OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATIONBY THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONthanks. Tommi

14) ACTION ALERT: MAY 3 ORGANIZE A VIGIL TO MORN CIVILIAN CASUALTIES OF WAR

15) StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network Dear DRCNet reader:As you may already be aware, on May 4 in Washington, DC, and May 9 in Santa Monica, California, the Marijuana Policy Project will be holding a star-studded pair of 10th Anniversary Gala fundraisers. Seats are still available, but should be reserved soon because the events are coming up. Visit http://www.mpp.org/galas/ for further information or to purchase your tax-deductible tickets online.

17) NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR GI RESISTERS MAY 10, 2005 SUPPORT NAVY REFUSER PABLO PAREDES & ARMY OBJECTOR KEVIN BENDERMANOn the day before their scheduled court martial for refusing toparticipate in the Iraq war and occupation, tell the U.S. military:* RESISTING ILLEGAL WAR & OCCUPATION IS NOT A CRIME* RESPECT CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONSan Francisco Bay Area Support RallyTUES MAY 10, 12 NOONWar Memorial Veterans Building in SF401 Van Ness, between Hayes and McAllister, San Francisco(2 blocks from Civic Center BART)http://www.CourageToResist.org

20) Military recruiting center attacked By John Aguilar, the Rocky Mountain News April 29, 2005 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news/article/0,1299,DRMN_3_3739782,00.html

21) ANTI-ZIONIST ORTHODOX JEWS PROTEST THE STATE OF ISRAEL New York City, NY April 29, 2005. http://al-awda.org/antizionistorthodoxjewsprotestthestateofisrael/

22) Social Security: Help for the Poor or Help for All? By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and EDUARDO PORTER May 1, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/politics/01social.html?hp&ex=1115006400&en=a7440b2d68da0981&ei=5094&partner=homepage

23) 'Soccer Mom' Education Chief Plays Hardball By SAM DILLON Published: April 28, 2005 "Facing a challenge to the law [No Child Left Behind] from Connecticut, she accused educators there of being "un-American." Seeking to beat back a Utah bill that protests the federal law, Ms. Spellings cold-shouldered the Utah superintendent of schools for months and threatened to slash federal money for Utah... the White House is determined to avoid any legislative reconsideration until the scheduled reauthorization of the law in 2007. That position is requiring states to live with what many view as unrealistic provisions, like one requiring that newly arrived immigrant students take annual tests in English, and it has fallen to Ms. Spellings to keep the lid on."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/education/28spellings.html

24) While Devils Get a Home, Newark's Poor Keep Looking By DAMIEN CAVE May 1, 2005 "NEWARK, April 29 - Shereef Cheatham, a single mother of four, had been waiting five years for a rent assistance voucher when the Newark Housing Authority diverted $3.9 million in federal funds from the program in 2003 to pay for property near a proposed hockey arena downtown. She is still waiting."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/nyregion/01newark.html

26) Pablo Paredes faces Court Martial on May 11th All,Defend Pablo Paredes, GI Resister! Learn about his case at www.defendpablo.org and forward widely. Put the US Government and its warmongers on trial, not Pablo. He and all other soldiers who resist deserve our support.

28) Secretly, tiny nations hold much wealth By David R. Francis from the April 25, 2005 edition "Although they have only 1 percent of the world's inhabitants, they hold a quarter of United States stocks and nearly a third of all the globe's assets.

They're tax havens: 70 mostly tiny nations that offer no-tax or low-tax status to the wealthy so they can stash their money."http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p17s01-cogn.html

30) The War We Could Have Won By STEPHEN J. MORRIS OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Washington May 1, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/opinion/01morris.html?th&emc=th

31) Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do!

32) G.I. in Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal Pleads Guilty By CHRISTINE HAUSER and NATHAN LEVY Published: May 2, 2005 "Two people close to the prosecution have said Private England can expect to receive no more than 30 months in prison."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/national/02cnd-abuse.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=edf1ccd7857b9aaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage

33) Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases By STEPHEN LABATON, LORNE MANLY and ELIZABETH JENSEN Published: May 2, 2005 "WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html

34) Thousands Protest on Eve of a U.N. Nuclear Conference By KIRK SEMPLE"In a merger of the nuclear disarmament and antiwar movements, several thousand protesters, including a group of survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, marched through Midtown yesterday and rallied in Central Park to call for the end of nuclear proliferation and the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq. " Published: May 2, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/nyregion/02protest.html

36) Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan Michael Smith A SECRET document from the heart of government reveals today that Tony Blair privately committed Britain to war with Iraq and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification.May 01, 2005http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1592904-523,00.html

37) WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF HATE HAPPENS IN YOUR TOWN? Free public showing of a new documentary "Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here" followed by a community conversation Thursday, May 12, 2005 Doors open 6:45, program 7:00-9:30 Centre Concord, 5298 Clayton Road, ConcordACLU-Mt. Diablo is cosponsoring this great event! Hope you can come!

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1) May 7th Mother's Day Peace Walk

Hello Everyone!The May 7th Mother's Day Peace Walk and Rally is just around the corner --- I've included the march route and speaker line up --- Speakers will speak for 3-5 min. (This schedule of speakers could be revised.) --- We'll, of course end at the U. S. Military Recruiting office on Davis Street which is scheduled to close at 4pm --- Please pass information --- If there are any questions, concerns suggestions e-mail me directly --- Thanks for all your help and support,In Peace,Nancy

U.S. Military Recruiting Office / RallyRepresentative/Haiti Action CommitteeMark Sanchez/SF Board of Ed.Eduardo Cohen/Veterans for PeaceBonnie Weinstein/Bay Area United Against WarCristina Gutierrez/Companeros del BarrioAimee Allison/Military Conscientious ObjectorClose with the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence

ToodlesNancy

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2) Supreme Court to Review Recruiting Law By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 10:21 a.m. ET May 2, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Scotus-Colleges-Military.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=866e748c4c561f09&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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3) How Far Will The Army Go? CBS4 Denver | news4colorado.com How far will U.S. Army recruiters go to bring young men and women into their ranks? An Arvada West High School senior recently decided to find out. The following is CBS4 Investigator Rick Sallinger's report. . Apr 28, 2005 9:59 pm US/Mountain http://news4colorado.com/localnews/local_story_118125046.html

5) Join Howard Zinn and Lynne Steward and sign onto to the text for a full page ad we are running the San Francisco State University newspaper in defense of anti-military recruiter student protesters. From: chretientodd@aol.com To: counter-recruitment@yahoogroups.com ;moos-bay@yahoogroups.com

Dear Friends, Please join Howard Zinn and Lynne Steward and sign onto to the text for a full page ad we are running the San Francisco State University newspaper in defense of anti-military recruiter student protesters. The text is pretty self-explanatory. I'd really appreciate it if you could endorse the ad and forward it to any lists or individuals you know for endorsement. If you endorse, please include your name, title, organization/school/union/church for ID purposes. We need to raise $800 for the ad as well as more money for legal defense so if you can make any contribution, that would be greatly appreciated. We'd also like to thank the 6 Bay Area NLG lawyers who are conducting a vigorous defense of the students pro bono.

Send checks to: ISO, 110 Capp Street, Suite 202, San Francisco, CA 94110. Please make the check out to "ISO" and put "SFSU student defense" in the memo section. Endorsements must be returned by Wednesday, May 4 (this coming Wednesday!)

Defend Students Rights at SFSU [text of ad for May 12 edition of The Golden Gator Xpress campus newspaper]

1st Amendment from the Bill of Rights:

I - Freedom of Speech, Press, Religion and Petition

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

On March 9th, 2005, about two hundred students at San Francisco State University protested the presence of military recruiters from the Army Corps of Engineers and the Air force in the Cesar Chavez Student Center. They were protesting the US occupation of Iraq, which has led to the deaths of over 1500 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqis, the diversion of funding away from education and into military spending, and the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, which is blatantly discriminatory against gays and lesbians. The military's openly homophobic policy violates the spirit and the letter of the California State University and SFSU anti-discrimination policy. Instead of enforcing their own anti-discrimination policy against the military recruiters, the administration has targeted three student activists, Pardis Esmaeili, Katrina Yeaw and Michael Hoffman, and two student organizations, Students Against War and the International Socialist Organization, among all of those who participated, for possible discipline and sanctions. Students, who staged a nonviolent sit-in, were exercising their First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The administration has stated that they must allow military recruiters on campus because of the Solomon Amendment, a 1996 law which has been used to coerce universities with threats of federal funding cuts. But the Solomon Amendment has been successfully challenged by both Yale and Harvard. Regarding allowing discriminatory employers on campuses, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that "under the free speech protections in the First Amendment, the government may not force higher education institutions to endorse a message that violates their own policies." There is no reason why San Francisco State University cannot challenge the Solomon Amendment and uphold its anti-discrimination policy.

The administration's threats may have already had a chilling effect on student activism on campus. Students on many California campuses participated in an April 20 walkout to protest budget cuts in education and support the faculty union. In the SF State campus newspaper, The Golden Gate Xpress, California Faculty Association office manager Laurie Owen stated that "many student groups feel too reluctant to risk incurring yet more wrath from the gods of SFSU to engage in yet more civil disobedience. Because so many groups pulled out of the walkout, it essentially fell apart." (http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/news/003565.html)

The whole history of San Francisco State University is based on a legacy of students fighting for progressive political change. Honoring protest is literally built into SFSU. The students began their March 9 protest on Malcolm X Plaza, marched into Cesar Chavez Student Center, past the Martin Luther King, Jr. Conference Rooms, Rigoberta Menchu Hall and Richard Oakes Multicultural Center and into the Jack Adams Hall to protest the military recruiters. Although less widely known than the others, Jack Adams Hall was dedicated to a campus worker who was a pioneer in the fight against AIDS and eventually died of that disease.

Shouldn't the administration respect the rights of students who dare to protest against an unjust war and a homophobic military by standing in the legacy of the very civil rights heroes the university honors?

We the undersigned join San Francisco State students in demanding:

1 - No disciplinary action should be taken against individual students or student groups for involvement in, or endorsement of, the March 9th 2005 protest in Jack Adams Hall

2 - The University should seek to uphold its own anti-discrimination policy and pursue a legal challenge to the Solomon Amendment.

3 - The University should provide a forum for debating the issue of military recruitment on campus. This debate should include military recruiters, SFSU President Robert Corrigan, and a speaker chosen by Students Against War.

4 - The administration will uphold the right to free speech on the SFSU campus and not limit it to unconstitutional "free speech zones."

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6) US Wants to Sell Israel 'Bunker-Buster' Bombs by Demetri Sevastopulo in Washington Published on Wednesday, April 27, 2005 by the Financial Times http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0427-05.htm

8) This is our Guernica Ruined, cordoned Falluja is emerging as the decade's monument to brutality Jonathan Steele and Dahr Jamail The Guardian Wednesday April 27, 2005 http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1471011,00.html

Please spread the word far and wide - this is Camilo's first appearance in the Bay Area since he was released.

Iraq war veteran and resister Camilo Mejia will speak on May 2nd in Oakland. Mejia was the first Iraq war veteran to file for discharge from the army as a conscientious objector and spent a year in the stockade for his courageous stance. He had seen the suffering of the Iraqi people, whose country was in ruin and who were further humiliated by the raids, patrols and curfews of an occupying army. "By putting my weapon down, I chose to reassert myself as a human being," he says.

Also appearing will be Brian Wilson and other notable resisters, with music by Annie and the Vets.

Camilo Mejia will also be appearing in San Jose & Palo Alto on May 1st, and in Santa Cruz on May 4th.

FOR MORE INFORMATION : call Veterans for Peace at 415-255-7331 or see www.veteransforpeace.org

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* To visit your group on the web, go to: * http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MOOS-BAY/

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10) March and Rally for Local 2 Hotel Workers Tues. May 3, 4:15pm Union Square at Powell and Geary, San Francisco

The employees of San Francisco's 14 Multi-Employer Group hotels are taking it to the streets for a huge March and Rally. For the better part of a year, the hotel workers have been struggling for a decent contract. We have been victorious in ending the lockout, but the hotels still want to cut our healthcare and offer us disrespectful wage increases, as well as disallow us to work with our brothers and sisters in cities across North America.

The Lockout in the fall ended because of strong picket lines and community support. Local 2 workers need continued support securing a decent contract.

Join the ANSWER Coalition contingent on May 3 in solidarity with the Local 2 workers.

Join us for a political update and discussion, a report back from the April 30 Rally, and an update on the campaign against anti-Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Thurs. May 5, 7:30pm ANSWER Film Series: "Harlan County, USA"in celebration of May DayATA 992 Valencia at 21st, SF $5 donation (no one turned away for lack on funds)

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastovers refusal to sign a contract-when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America-led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supporters. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective-giving some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. 1976, 103 min.

Caracas, Apr 27 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez stated his country has developed an economic model to live honourably, to fairly distribute wealth among all people and to demonstrate there is a new spirit of solidarity and cooperation.

"There is a new logical alternative to capitalism, which is no other than Socialism, and we are building our own socialist model without emulating the ones from the past," Chavez noted.

The Venezuelan leader made the remark at an act where property belonging to the National Industrial Valve Assembling Company was expropriated.

The firm, located at the Carrizales zone in the neighboring state of Miranda, employed 400 workers and assembled valves for the oil industry for 35 years.

In December 2002, the company closed to support the oil strike that caused millions in losses to Caracas.

The entity will be jointly managed by the state through the People´s Economy Ministry (51 percent) and workers organized into a cooperative (49 percent).

The joint venture, called INDEVAL, stems from Venezuelan efforts to revive and industrialize the country under a new model.

"This business is born under another option: that of sharing the property between the workers and the state, a different social property to the logic of capitalism, a system that lacks a human face", Hugo Chavez emphasized

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12) Memorial for Sakia Gunn, a black lesbian who was murdered in a hate crime two years ago. The memorial will take place on May 22, 2pm, at Harvey Milk Plaza. Please put it on your calendars now. There will a few community speakers and some poetry. BADLANDS BAR, IN THE CASTRO, S.F., FOUND GUILTY OF RACIAL DISCRIMINATIONBY THE HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSIONthanks. Tommi

HiAs I'm sure you know, Badlands was just found guilty of racial discrimination by the Human Rights Commission (complete report available on www.andcastroforall.org www.andcastroforall.org> ) and we'd like to let folks going in and out of the bar know that discrimination is not acceptable within any community, let alone our community...we will be chanting, carrying signs, giving out info on the HRC findings and talking with folks. We will also have copies of the HRC report on hand.

I am recruiting ten folks to picket Badlands Bar next weekend on Friday and Saturday nights, from 10pm-midnight.

Please let me know which night(s) you're available.

The only way to stop discrimination is to confront it head-on and never be silent.thanks. See you on the picket line!Tommi

14) ACTION ALERT: MAY 3 ORGANIZE A VIGIL TO MORN CIVILIAN CASUALTIES OF WAR

Dear friends,

As you know, our colleague and friend Marla Ruzicka and her Iraqi colleague Faiz Ali Salim were killed in Iraq a week and a half ago, while working to document civilian casualties resulting from the Iraq war and occupation, and get compensation for Iraqi families. Marla's organization, CIVIC, is trying to bring more attention to the issue of civilian casualties by asking communities to hold vigils next Tuesday, May 3. Please forward this to people who might be interested or people who already do ongoing vigils and might want to use next week's vigil to highlight the issue of civilian deaths and injuries caused by war.

Thanks for your help in spreading the word. As you know, our groups always have a difficult time drawing attention to the issue of civilian casualties, and this might be a good opportunity for us to do just that.

Best,Andrea BuffaGlobal Exchange

ACTION ALERT: MAY 3 ORGANIZE A VIGIL TO MORN CIVILIAN CASUALTIES OF WAR

The Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC), the organization founded by Marla Ruzicka, the 28-year-old aid worker who was killed in a suicide bombing in Iraq last week, is calling on people throughout the United States to honor and promote Marla and her Iraqi colleague Faiz Ali Salim's work by taking action on behalf of civilian casualties of war.

CIVIC is asking people in communities throughout the United States - and the world - to hold vigils on Tuesday, May 3, to bring attention to civilian deaths and injuries caused by war. Please create the most beautiful vigils possible, including candles, flowers, and photos in an effort to bring attention to the immense scale of human suffering that war brings. For more information about how to organize a vigil, go to http://www.civicworldwide.org/content.jsp?content_KEY=513

Please visit CIVIC's website, http://www.civicworldwide.org, to host or participate in a vigil on May 3 in your community.

15) StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network Dear DRCNet reader:As you may already be aware, on May 4 in Washington, DC, and May 9 in Santa Monica, California, the Marijuana Policy Project will be holding a star-studded pair of 10th Anniversary Gala fundraisers. Seats are still available, but should be reserved soon because the events are coming up. Visit http://www.mpp.org/galas/ for further information or to purchase your tax-deductible tickets online.

In Washington, DC, US Rep. Linda Sanchez will present the Public Face of Reform Award to Montel Williams, and former Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders will present the Legislative Leadership Award to US Rep. Sam Farr. Acclaimed comic, actor, and Emmy Award-winning writer Rick Overton will serve as master of ceremonies. Also attending will be US Reps. John Conyers, Barney Frank, and Dennis Kucinich.

In Los Angeles, actor Tommy Chong will accept the Courage Under Fire Award, and Supreme Court plaintiffs Angel Raich and Diane Monson will receive the Marijuana Policy Reform Activist of the Year Award. Cast members Christian Campbell, John Kassir, and Amy Spanger from Showtime's musical remake of "Reefer Madness" will perform songs from the show. Comedian Tom Rhodes will emcee, with music by Ray Benson, Inara George, Lily Holbrook, and dj John Kelley.

Both events will feature clips from the new films "Waiting to Inhale" from Jed Riffe and "Chong's Not Here!" from Josh Gilbert.

Again, visit http://www.mpp.org/galas/ to support the cause and be part of these exciting events!

Dahr Jamail recognized that Americans were being misled about the USoccupation of Iraq, so he went to Iraq to find the truth. After being*un*embedded in Iraq totaling over 8 months, he returned to the Statesto tell what he discovered. In this video Dahr Jamail speaks of thehorrors of occupation, the use of illegal weapons by American forces,the rip-off of American taxpayers by Bechtel and other US corporations,the shabby and biased media coverage of the situation by US media, andof the resilient determination of the Iraqi people to be free fromforeign occupation.

A portion of the price of this video goes to support Dahr in his ongoingefforts.

See the preview!

Buy the video from the PepperSpray Productions website

More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

You are subscribed to the Dahr Jamail's email Iraq Dispatches because you requested a subscription at some point.

You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.Iraq_Dispatches mailing listhttp://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

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17) NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR GI RESISTERS MAY 10, 2005 SUPPORT NAVY REFUSER PABLO PAREDES & ARMY OBJECTOR KEVIN BENDERMANOn the day before their scheduled court martial for refusing toparticipate in the Iraq war and occupation, tell the U.S. military:* RESISTING ILLEGAL WAR & OCCUPATION IS NOT A CRIME* RESPECT CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTIONSan Francisco Bay Area Support RallyTUES MAY 10, 12 NOONWar Memorial Veterans Building in SF401 Van Ness, between Hayes and McAllister, San Francisco(2 blocks from Civic Center BART)http://www.CourageToResist.org

After refusing to honor their conscientious objection, the U.S. militarywill bring Pablo Paredes (in San Diego, California) and Kevin Benderman(in Fort Stewart, Georgia) before a military court martial tribunal on May11, 2005. They face military jail, and forfeiture of pay and benefits.

On December 6, 2004, Navy Petty Officer Pablo Paredes refused to board hisNavy ship and participate in the Iraq war and occupation.

On January 5, 2005, Kevin Benderman refused to deploy for a second tour ofduty in Iraq with the Army's Third Infantry Division. At the same timeseventeen other soldiers from his unit went AWOL, two tried to killthemselves and one had a relative shoot him in the leg to avoid deploying.

At the time of his refusal, Pablo said he hoped his protest might inspireother GI's to refuse to take part in the war. Thousands of U.S. troops arerefusing to fight the war and occupation in Iraq. We are committed toasserting widespread public pressure in defense of GI's choice to followtheir conscience instead of the dictates of the State. We believe this isa key way to help end the tragic war and occupation of Iraq. Please joinus and do what you can on this National Day of Action for GI Resisters;organize a public support event, pass this e-mail on to your friends,family and associates, send letters of support (websites below), etc.Please send us a note letting us know of what you have planned:courage@riseup.net

COURAGE TO RESIST is a new group of concerned community members, veteransand military families organizing support for military objectors to illegalwar and occupation and underlying policies of empire. We have adopted apeople power strategy to weaken the pillars that support the Iraq war andoccupation by supporting GI resistance, which together withcounter-recruitment and draft resistance work can remove the supply ofobedient troops.

More info on Pablo: http://www.swiftsmartveterans.comKevin and Monica Benderman will be speaking in San Francisco on Saturday,April 30, 2005, 2:00-4:00 PMhttp://www.bendermandefense.org

NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION FOR GI RESISTERS:www.CourageToResist.org

Peace, No WarWar is not the answer, for only love can conquer hateNot in our Name! And another world is possible!Tel: (213)403-0131

Information for antiwar movements, news across the World, please visit:http://www.PeaceNoWar.net

Each CD costs: $15.00 plus $3.50 S/H (work both PC and Mac)The CD sells will be benefit the Baghdad Independent Media Center, ActionLA, and PeaceNoWar.net*Additional donations are welcome, and it will be tax deductible.

20) Military recruiting center attacked By John Aguilar, the Rocky Mountain News April 29, 2005 http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news/article/0,1299,DRMN_3_3739782,00.html

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21) ANTI-ZIONIST ORTHODOX JEWS PROTEST THE STATE OF ISRAEL New York City, NY April 29, 2005. http://al-awda.org/antizionistorthodoxjewsprotestthestateofisrael/

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22) Social Security: Help for the Poor or Help for All? By EDMUND L. ANDREWS and EDUARDO PORTER May 1, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/politics/01social.html?hp&ex=1115006400&en=a7440b2d68da0981&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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23) 'Soccer Mom' Education Chief Plays Hardball By SAM DILLON Published: April 28, 2005 "Facing a challenge to the law [No Child Left Behind] from Connecticut, she accused educators there of being "un-American." Seeking to beat back a Utah bill that protests the federal law, Ms. Spellings cold-shouldered the Utah superintendent of schools for months and threatened to slash federal money for Utah... the White House is determined to avoid any legislative reconsideration until the scheduled reauthorization of the law in 2007. That position is requiring states to live with what many view as unrealistic provisions, like one requiring that newly arrived immigrant students take annual tests in English, and it has fallen to Ms. Spellings to keep the lid on."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/28/education/28spellings.html

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24) While Devils Get a Home, Newark's Poor Keep Looking By DAMIEN CAVE May 1, 2005 "NEWARK, April 29 - Shereef Cheatham, a single mother of four, had been waiting five years for a rent assistance voucher when the Newark Housing Authority diverted $3.9 million in federal funds from the program in 2003 to pay for property near a proposed hockey arena downtown. She is still waiting."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/nyregion/01newark.html

26) Pablo Paredes faces Court Martial on May 11th All,Defend Pablo Paredes, GI Resister! Learn about his case at www.defendpablo.org and forward widely. Put the US Government and its warmongers on trial, not Pablo. He and all other soldiers who resist deserve our support.

--Ashley

On December 6, 2004 Pablo Paredes reported to the 32nd Street Naval Station in San Diego and refused to board the ship to protest the current US war. He reported to the pier wearing civilian clothing and a T-shirt that read: "Like a cabinet member, I resign." "I just want people to know how many Americans feel about the war" Pablo explained "...it's not just a few crazy liberals trying to get the attention of the media." While the Navy officers on hand did try to persuade him to board the ship and cease protest; Pablo maintained his position and did not board the ship. He went on to give several short interviews for local media while at the Pier. A product of the Bronx NY, Paredes was raised attending catholic schools for both elementary and high school. A staple of his upbringing has been a strong sense of community and high value for human life. Paredes has been involved in many community service efforts such as Sunday school education and youth groups. His strong values for life and community have put him at odds with the current War in Iraq. "I don't want to be a part of a ship that's taking 3,000 Marines over there, knowing a hundred or more of them won't come back," he said. "I can't sleep at night knowing that's what I do for a living." The current war in Iraq has claimed the lives of over 1000 young Americans servicemen as well approximately half a million Iraqi civilians. Meanwhile servicemen continue to be placed in harms way and are put in situations that have them question the humanity of their actions as in the case of Camilo Mejia. Furthermore, our government is yet to provide justifiable cause for the war. The case made to the American people and the United Nations was centered around a clear and present threat of weapons of mass destruction. To date, our military activities are probably the largest cause of mass destruction in Iraq thus bringing about dissent from many sources including Petty Officer Third Class Pablo Paredes. This act of conscientious objection can result in military confinement and even Courts Marshal. The US Navy will most likely carry out an investigation prior to issuing formal sanctions. The US Navy may even choose to consider him a deserter. When speaking about his possible imprisonment Pablo explained "I'd rather do military prison time than six months of dirty work for a war that I and many others do not support. War should be an absolute last resort and even then must be considered thoroughly." Pablo Paredes joined the US Navy in 2000. he was a young man with enthusiasm for life and a desire to experience the world; thus joining the Navy seemed to be a positive move. When asked if he ever considered that he might be called upon to participate in war, Pablo says "never in a million years did I imagine we would go to war with somebody who had done nothing to us."

28) Secretly, tiny nations hold much wealth By David R. Francis from the April 25, 2005 edition "Although they have only 1 percent of the world's inhabitants, they hold a quarter of United States stocks and nearly a third of all the globe's assets.

They're tax havens: 70 mostly tiny nations that offer no-tax or low-tax status to the wealthy so they can stash their money."http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0425/p17s01-cogn.html

30) The War We Could Have Won By STEPHEN J. MORRIS OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR Washington May 1, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/01/opinion/01morris.html?th&emc=th

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31) Nuclear Madness: What You Can Do!

Hiroshima Mayor Calls on All Countries "Including U.S." to Abolish Nuclear WeaponsA large anti-nuclear rally in New York calls for global nuclear disarmament ahead of a United Nations meeting to review the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. We speak with the mayor of Hiroshima - where 60 years ago the U.S. dropped one of two atomic bombs. click here for interview: http://www.democracynow.org/index.pl

32) G.I. in Iraqi Prisoner Abuse Scandal Pleads Guilty By CHRISTINE HAUSER and NATHAN LEVY Published: May 2, 2005 "Two people close to the prosecution have said Private England can expect to receive no more than 30 months in prison."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/national/02cnd-abuse.html?hp&ex=1115092800&en=edf1ccd7857b9aaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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33) Republican Chairman Exerts Pressure on PBS, Alleging Biases By STEPHEN LABATON, LORNE MANLY and ELIZABETH JENSEN Published: May 2, 2005 "WASHINGTON, May 1 - The Republican chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is aggressively pressing public television to correct what he and other conservatives consider liberal bias, prompting some public broadcasting leaders - including the chief executive of PBS - to object that his actions pose a threat to editorial independence."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/arts/television/02public.html

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34) Thousands Protest on Eve of a U.N. Nuclear Conference By KIRK SEMPLE"In a merger of the nuclear disarmament and antiwar movements, several thousand protesters, including a group of survivors of the atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, marched through Midtown yesterday and rallied in Central Park to call for the end of nuclear proliferation and the withdrawal of United States troops from Iraq. " Published: May 2, 2005 http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/02/nyregion/02protest.html

36) Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan Michael Smith A SECRET document from the heart of government reveals today that Tony Blair privately committed Britain to war with Iraq and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification.May 01, 2005http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1592904-523,00.html

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37) WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF HATE HAPPENS IN YOUR TOWN? Free public showing of a new documentary "Not In Our Town Northern California: When Hate Happens Here" followed by a community conversation Thursday, May 12, 2005 Doors open 6:45, program 7:00-9:30 Centre Concord, 5298 Clayton Road, ConcordACLU-Mt. Diablo is cosponsoring this great event! Hope you can come!

What would you do if hate hit your town? All too frequently we hear stories of hate violence from vandalism to harassment to murder. Most of us would like to do something. And the good news is -- we do. "Not In Our Town Northern California" looks at 5 communities over a 5-year period as they take action when their neighbors are targets of bigotry.

After a transgender teen is killed by local youth in the Silicon Valley suburb of Newark, high school students, residents and civic leaders struggle to deal with a brutal and preventable crime; Sacramento mobilizes after the worst anti-Semitic arson attacks in the California capital's history; Redding citizens find a new strength in diversity after a prominent gay couple is murdered; the Shasta County town of Anderson joins forces to make their values clear when a cross is burned on an African-American family's lawn; and the San Francisco Public Library turns the mutilation of gay-themed books into an opportunity for creative community action.

For more info about the event: Mt. Diablo Peace & Justice Center, info@mtdpc.org / 925-933-7850For more info about the film: www.kqed.org/niotThe film is a co-production of KQED Public Television and The Working Group.

DIRECTIONS: Centre Concord is located at 5298 Clayton Road, Concord, in the Clayton Fair Shopping Center (almost to Ygnacio Valley Road) behind Mavericks Sports Club and next to Clayton Bowl. Hotline for directions: 925-671-3466 Map: www.ci.concord.ca.us/about/directions.htm#centreconcord